海底兩萬(wàn)里 第217期 第16章 在海底平原散步(8)

All these wonders I glimpsed in the space of a quarter of a mile, barely pausing, following Captain Nemo whose gestures kept beckoning me onward. Soon the nature of the seafloor changed. The plains of sand were followed by a bed of that viscous slime Americans call "ooze," which is composed exclusively of seashells rich in limestone or silica.Then we crossed a prairie of algae, open-sea plants that the waters hadn't yet torn loose, whose vegetation grew in wild profusion. Soft to the foot, these densely textured lawns would have rivaled the most luxuriant carpets woven by the hand of man. But while this greenery was sprawling under our steps, it didn't neglect us overhead. The surface of the water was crisscrossed by a floating arbor of marine plants belonging to that superabundant algae family that numbers more than 2,000 known species.I saw long ribbons of fucus drifting above me, some globular, others tubular: Laurencia, Cladostephus with the slenderest foliage, Rhodymenia palmata resembling the fan shapes of cactus.I observed that green-colored plants kept closer to the surface of the sea, while reds occupied a medium depth, which left blacks and browns in charge of designing gardens and flowerbeds in the ocean's lower strata.

約在四分之一海里的空間內(nèi)，我沒(méi)有停步，幾乎不斷地看到這些珍品。尼摩船長(zhǎng)向我招手，我跟著他走。不久，腳下的土壤變了性質(zhì)。接連細(xì)沙平原的是一片膠粘的泥地，單獨(dú)由硅土或石灰貝殼構(gòu)成，美國(guó)人管它叫“烏茲”。接昔我們跑過(guò)一段海藻地，它們是未經(jīng)海水沖走的海產(chǎn)植物，繁殖力很強(qiáng)。這種纖維緊密的草坪，踩在腳下軟綿綿的，刁”以和人工織出的最柔軟的地毯媲美。但是，不只我們腳下是綠草如茵，連我們頭上也是一片翠綠。水面上輕飄飄地浮著一層海產(chǎn)植物，全部是取之不盡的海藻類，這類植物，我們已經(jīng)知道的，至少有二千多種。我看見(jiàn)水中浮著很長(zhǎng)的海帶(有些作球形，有些作管狀)、紅花藻、葉子很纖細(xì)的薛苔、很像仙人掌的薔薇藻。我注意到較近海面的一層是青綠色的海草，在更深一些的地方是紅色的海草，黑色或赭色。的水草就在最深處，形成海底花園和草地。